`You are to examine him concerning the Popish Plott and to give him an assurance in his Majesties behalfe that he shall not onlie be sett at libertie but alsoe be rewarded according to the meritt of his discovery". This was contained in a letter from the Irish Privy Council, dated September 21, 1860, to George Phillips at Derry. The person to be examined was Paule Gormley, Franciscan friar, then in jail at Derry. (Irish Priests in Penal Times: William Burke 1914).
At a General Assizes held in Co Roscommon in 1715, one Edmund Gormally was listed as a priest in the parishes of Clontoskert and Killevan. The Gormleys appear to have been attracted to the priesthood, for three of the name - Cormac, Michael and Paul, Francisans, are noted in the Louvain Papers between 1622 and 1750.
In 1921, during the War of Independence Rev D Gormley, parish priest of Roslea, Co Fermanagh, was a member of a "committee of Protestants and prominent Catholics" to try to prevent killings and reprisals. (Protestants were not required, it appears, to be "prominent").
Annala Rioghachta Eireann/ Annals of the Four Masters notes the death in 1218 of another priest of the name, one Giolla na Naomh O Gormghaile of Rath Luraigh in the Co Derry parish of Maghera. This placename was anglicised Rathloury, expanded to Machaire Ratha Luraigh, then anglicised and shortened to Maghera Raw, which is today's Maghera. O ormghaile was rendered O Gormally, and the annals contains two others so-spelt - Maeliosa and Murry, who died in 1234 and 1240, respectively. O Gormleaghaidh, mentioned 36 times in the annals, has O Gormshuiligh as an alternative spelling, according to William Hennessy, editor of the Annals of Loch Ce (1871). Mac Lysaght's The Surnames of Ireland lists (O) Gormley and Gormally as the anglicisations of O Gormleadhaighh and O Gormghaile.
Annals entries dated from 1084 to 1583, lists O Gairmleaghaigh 36 times, many of whom were listed as chiefs of Cineal Moen, a territory which was in the modern barony of Raphoe, Co Donegal. They were driven from there in the 14th century by the O Donnells, surviving in their new country on the other side of the river Foyle, between Derry and Strabane in Co Tyrone. It is claimed they originally descended from Niall na Naoi nGiallach, through Eoin, and Muireadach, and then Moen.
The Irish Fiants of the Tudor Sovereigns (1521-1603) lists this name six times, variously spelt O Gormley, O Gormle, O Gormeyle, O Gormele, and Gormly, in pardons between 1575 and 1602. These were in counties Meath, Laois, and Armagh. A Census of Ireland 1659 lists persons of this name among the principal Irish names in Armagh county and borough, and in the barony of Tiranny in that county; in the city and county of Londonderry, and in that county's barony of Tirkeerin; in the Co Westmeath barony of Moycashel; in Roscommon county and Athlone borough, and in the Co Dublin baronies of Newcastle and Uppercross.
Woulfe's Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall (1923), and Mac Lysaght's The Surnames of Ireland (1980) treat Gormley and Gormally as the same. Mac Lysaght, however, gives O Gormghaile as the Connacht spelling, and O Gormleadhaigh that of Ulster. De Bhulbh's Sloinnte na hEireann/Irish Surnames (1997) gives Gormally as the anglicised form of O Gormghaile (blue valour), acknowledging it is now usually changed to Gormley. He gives Gormley as the anglicised form of O Gormshleaghaigh.
Telephone directories south of the Border list Gormally 40 times, and Gormley 294 times, most numerous in Connacht, Donegal and north Leinster. North of the Border there are but two Gormally entries, with 235 of Gormley.